You did not that’s correct, that was meant more towards all of the people in the thread in general worshiping steam as a corporate savior. That was poor writing on my part. The things you mentioned are almost word for word the conjecture you find on Reddit and has not proof itself. I would love to see a copy of the MFN myself. Valve definitely admits they ask developers to offer similar prices according to their responses to other users, but won’t deny it or produce a copy themselves of any MFN. All I’m saying is they’re in a well deserved anti-trust suit that covers several topics beyond the MFN as detailed in the links I did provide. Their motions to dismissed have been slapped down because the judges feels there’s enough evidence to proceed on at least some of the claims. I guess we’ll see whether the case can prove itself or not and neither of us will really know until all of the evidence is presented. I’m not blindly believing they must be guilty, but it’s hard to say Steam isn’t a monopoly. There are plenty of other reasons to dislike Steam, but arguing that with the other people here is a bit like arguing with gun owners. People are willing to dismiss their principles about things that affect the macrocosm quickly when it could deprive them of something they personally enjoy.

I can’t speak to whether or not that is true, because it’s not necessarily exclusive. Both can be correct. It’s not what’s in the antitrust lawsuit. it’s not what I’m talking about either. The issue outlined in the antitrust suit is: *“Valve has for years maintained its dominance and thwarted effective competition by engaging in various anticompetitive acts. For example, Valve forces game publishers to agree to a Platform Most-Favored-Nations Clause (the “Valve PMFN”) as a requirement to access Steam. Valve explicitly requires that publishers agree that games sold elsewhere must be sold “in a similar way to how you sell your game on Steam” and publishers cannot “give Steam customers a worse deal” for games sold elsewhere,2 i.e., Valve prohibits publishers from giving consumers a better deal on other stores that compete with Steam. Valve interprets and enforces this language to encompass price parity, forcing game publishers to charge the inflated Steam Store price across the marketplace, on all game sales, even sales of games that are not enabled for Steam. Valve thus uses its PMFN to control the prices of games sold in the Steam Store and in other stores. Rather than lowering prices to Steam customers, Valve’s PMFN has the effect of reducing price competition and raising game prices.” That’s one of several complaints against Valve." * I’m really surprised so many people here of all places believe any corporation gives a shit about anything but their money. Corporations are never your friend. If they helped make piracy necessary it wasn’t done for our benefit, it was done because it is profitable for them. Here’s the complaint in case No. 2:21-cv-00563-JCC in it’s entirety: https://www.steamclaims.com/_files/ugd/5210fb_80b19705e27549158fea02a16055b0e4.pdf

They also forced developers to never price lower on any other platform than steam as a condition fire selling on steam. Which is not only unethical, it’s illegal. Also the secret hardware changes to steam deck which people usually try to justify, but was shady no matter what.

I only hate smokers out of jealousy, but it’s not real hate. Probably too much story, but here in The Derp South smoking is pretty engrained with the poverty. I started cigars when I was 18 and then cigarettes. I was told at 31 just before my December birthday I had five years to live if I didn’t quit smoking ( I know that was likely not accurate, but I was in rough shape). I was at 42% lung capacity and already had PAD and was diagnosed with COPD. I’m 42 and January 1st will be 11 years without a cigarette. I am at 86% lung capacity and am no longer considered to have COPD. I also miss smoking dearly and fucking loved it. Tell cigarettes I said hi and I’m sorry we can’t be together… Lol

A doctor would still say they were fat, depressed, or drug seeking.

I’m sold…“No marketplace. No loot boxes. No microtransactions. No paid DLC. No hidden fees. No pay2win. No ads. No user data monetization. No software patents. No shareholders. No publisher. No NFTs. No BlockChain. No 3rd party interests.”

Yeah, I especially expected more out of 196 especially. I saw people attacking someone in droves today for being entitled for posting something mildly infuriating in mildly infuriating. It’s like everyone here is just looking to lash out.

Funny, I don’t remember lashing out. I just wanted to use my art to make sense of the life changes my disability has brought about. Fuck corporations every day, but you’re no better lumping every artist together as this monster in your head. Your empathy isn’t as important as you think it is.

Also when they make AI that doesn’t require real artist input to even do what it does now then I’ll believe it’s anything but the plagiarism that it is.

I know they’re an army in this metaphor but I still want to hug them.

I used to play bridge builder too! If this were Facebook that would make me an expert. Sadly.

I’m too tired for sex, but I have cookies.

I can’t help but wonder if most other news organizations’ corporate owners wouldn’t want to legitimize the fediverse in anyway. It might loosen their deathgrip on the internet .

Good deal. Yeah I have few old movies or of circulation I downloaded in the 00’s in 240p that seemed fine back then but on my monitor or TV now make it look like I’m watching it on a Lite Brite.

If you’re doing it for preservation and data hoarding then it’s probably worth it to redo it, but unless you’re very picky odds are there isn’t much difference depending on what you saved them as in Handbrake. If you plan on keeping the DVDs then I would watch a bit of one as it’s then play a bit of the file and if you don’t have a problem with the difference then I wouldn’t worry about it too much. DVD is only 480 SD typically anyway. I’m not an expert though, just a fellow ripper of DVDs.

At least we know for sure neither of us is confident about our memories.

It’s been many years, but I remember a small banner ad below the video and maybe one to the side. It was so reasonable though it’s hard to remember for sure.

The degree in which corporations engage in psychological warfare against customers is astounding. Not surprising, just outrageous. Don’t want notifications on? We’re going to ask you to turn on notifications in the the program every single day until you do it. Don’t want to watch ads because our infinite greed has destroyed what used to be a good platform with a reasonable number of ads before we bought it? Then we’ll make the experience less pleasant until you comply. They already make multiple parts of YouTube disagree with ad blockers on purpose to break the sites features. Not that I use anything other than NewPipe and Piped anymore anyway. I’m just sick of shitty corporations acting like we’re children who can be punished.

I came to the OnePlus bandwagon late and now I know why my experience was so substandard even though so many people had talked them up. I was looking at the Nothing Phone and beginning to consider it because I bought a Pixel I regret and now I think I’ll just stick with the phone that’s paid for because they all suck. I miss my BlackJack II, Sidekick, and even my G1.

My exes in their legion of doooooom